Seeinstructions): Dr. Xiangpeng Kong's group at NYU School of Medicine will serve as the Structural Biology Core (SBC) for a Program Project entitled Neutralizing antibodies targeting the CD4 binding region of HIV-1 ENV in response to NIAID program announcement PAR-06-285, HIVVaccine Research and Design (HIVRAD). The team of this P01 includes, in addition to Dr. Kong's group, Drs. Shan Lu (PI, University of Massachusetts Medical School); Paul Clapham (University of Massachusetts Medical School); and Shiu-Lok Hu (University of Washington). Our SBC team is highly experienced in protein crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy and other biophysical techniques, and we will provide services for the P01 team in 3 areas: (i) using protein crystallographic methods to characterize a recombinant protein that mimics the CD4 binding site of HIV-1 gp120, and structural characterization of monoclonal antibodies generated by the P01 team; (ii)using surface plasma resonance (SPR) method to characterize the interactions between HIV-1 gp120 and its mutants with its receptor CD4 as well as antibodies against the HIV-1 surface protein; (iii)using computation method to characterize the structural dynamics of gp120 and its mutants. The structural information generated from our SBC will help the POTs aim in designing a vaccine against HIV-1. RELEVANCE (Seeinstructions):